9 comments:

greentea
said...

Ah, right after the reporting of the France release! Ugh, five months away.. wistful again. Well, I guess if it's socks for Christmas, at least there can be Ponyo in time for Easter. Maybe they're planning something special for the US DVD/Bluray.

Delays, delays. What's the deal here? These days most movies come out on DVD like 4 months after their theatrical release. Why are they making me wait so long for Ponyo? I wonder if they're considering a theatrical re-release around Awards season or something.

Really? Have they revised the numbers to $15 million? It was just a little shy at the end of its run. It's close enough that you could just round up the number for dinner conversations.

All in all, I'd say Ponyo did very good in the USA. Would I liked to have seen a blockbuster success? Yeah, of course! But it's just about impossible for 1) original movies, 2) foreign movies, and 3) anime movies to break in American theaters. $15 million is a very good success.

Now, if Miyazaki and Ghibli played the cynical sequel game like Hollywood, then, yeah, Ponyo 3: The Quest For Curly's Gold would be a blockbuster smash and make $300 million at the US box office. But Ghibli don't roll like that, kids. Be very grateful that they don't.

And yet, I sort of wish they did make sequels.. And come on, sequels aren't always bad. It's not all like The Land Before Time and Pokemon stuff.

I understand having a single story and leaving things in the end to the imagination, but I wouldn't mind seeing what happens to Ashitaka and San, or Marco and Gina, or if Chihiro and Haku ever do meet again. Nausicaa could probably use a sequel most of all.. with all it left out from the books.

The films stand on their own, and Ghibli would probably rather churn out one original film after another, but I wouldn't mind a sequel or two to continue the stories of previous movies, with worlds and characters we're already familiar with.

Now, if Miyazaki and Ghibli played the cynical sequel game like Hollywood, then, yeah, Ponyo 3: The Quest For Curly's Gold would be a blockbuster smash and make $300 million at the US box office. But Ghibli don't roll like that, kids. Be very grateful that they don't.

Thank God.

Love the City Slickers ref. here, good one!

I had to see Imagi's latest clunker last Friday, and I'm still getting nervous fits at the $7.75 I lost on that. :-)

Recent Comments

Zen Arcade: Classic Video Game Reviews

Pop Life

Essays on film & television, music & audio, video games, politics and life. Paperback and eBook editions.

Greatest Hits: An Anthology in Four Volumes

Essays on Studio Ghibli, film, music and video games. Paperback and eBook editions.

Horus, Prince of the Sun

1968 anime milestone by Isao Takahata. I wrote/edited the subtitles and four essays, assembled the production gallery, recorded two audio commentaries (BD/DVD), wrote the press release, and fought to preserve the proper movie title.

Antes De Mi Vecino Miyazaki

Book about Hayao Miyazaki & Isao Takahata, published in Spain. I wrote the introduction.

Mi Vecino Miyazaki

Book on Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki, Takahata, published in Spain. I wrote a capsule review.